The present invention relates to a process of creating a piece of return mail in an electronic mail processing system under a predetermined limitation on the number of destination addresses of a piece of e-mail to be sent.
As the Internet has become widespread in recent years, electronic mail has become commonplace as a communication tool with an information processor such as a personal computer or a piece of e-mail-specific terminal.
At the same time, there have been problems in such a case that a user who employs e-mail by means of an information processor placed at the user's office cannot manipulate the e-mail away from the office.
To enable a user to employ e-mail away from the user's office or house, a system for forwarding a piece of e-mail to an e-mail address which is available from the user's wireless mobile terminal was devised in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-244556. However, the above-mentioned e-mail forwarding system has a limit on size or the number of characters of a piece of e-mail to be forwarded depending on the type of destined mobile terminal (e.g., a cellular phone). Accordingly, when a piece of e-mail to be sent is too large, only the beginning part is forwarded or the whole piece of mail is forwarded by being divided into many pieces.
Another WWW (World Wide Web) mail system devised employs e-mail from a personal computer through a WWW browser instead of through e-mail specific application. In the WWW mail system, a user employs e-mail through a WWW browser.
Next, a conventional e-mail system will be described.
Conventional E-Mail System
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional e-mail system with a personal computer.
Reference numeral 201 denotes client 1 which is a personal computer connected to an e-mail system over the Internet. Client 1 includes an MUA (Mail User Agent) program for reading/writing a piece of e-mail and an MTA (Message Transfer Agent) program for distributing a piece of e-mail.
Reference numeral 202 denotes client 2 which is a personal computer connected to an e-mail system over the Internet. Client 2 includes an MUA program which is a mailer program for reading/writing a piece of e-mail. A user can create a piece of e-mail by controlling an MUA program on client 2 and request an MTA program running on a mail server 206 of an e-mail system to distribute the piece of e-mail.
A user can also access an e-mail system through POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP protocol, capture and view a piece of e-mail for the user existing in the e-mail system by controlling a mailer (MUA program) on client 2.
Client 2 also includes a WWW browser which is represented as Netscape Navigator (trademark) and the like. A user can access a WWW server in an e-mail system and perform a user registration process and an address book process by controlling a WWW browser.
Reference numeral 203 denotes considered to be a network using such communication network as a public telephone line, ISDN, and satellite communication network.
Reference numeral 204 denotes an e-mail system which is composed of a WWW server, a mail server, a database server and a charge server. The system provides a user with an e-mail service. The servers are respectively connected via a Local Area Network (referred to as LAN hereinafter) and can communicate data with each other.
Reference numeral 205 denotes a WWW server, which includes an authentication program, a user registration program, an address book program, and an account generation program. When a user controls a WWW browser and accesses the WWW server, the WWW server generates various WWW screens and sends them to the WWW browser. The user can make respective requests for the WWW server by viewing and manipulating the sent WWW screens.
The WWW server which received the user's request over the WWW starts each program and performs each process.
The authentication program 205a is a program for performing user authentication when a user accesses a WWW server by controlling a WWW browser. The user views a sent authentication screen and enters a user ID and a password which are required for authentication. Then the authentication program performs authentication by referring to user information data in a user information database. If the authentication fails, the authentication program displays an authentication error screen. If the authentication succeeds, the authentication program generates an authentication ID and stores the authentication ID in association with the user ID into an authentication database. At this moment, a timer for the authentication ID is set to a specific time period. When a predetermined time period set for this authentication ID timer elapses, the stored authentication ID is deleted from the database.
When the user accesses the WWW server again by controlling a WWW browser after having an authentication ID generated, the authentication program checks whether the generated authentication ID exists in DB. If the authentication ID exists in the DB, the previous authentication is determined to be valid and the access is permitted without performing any user authentication. If the authentication ID does not exist in the DB, the authentication ID is determined to be invalid and an authentication screen for retrying user authentication is displayed.
The user registration program 205b is a program to generate a user information registration screen for a user to set the start or end of the employment of the e-mail system or to register user information when the user accesses a URL for user registration of the WWW server by controlling a WWW browser.
When the user views an information registration screen and directs to start employing the e-mail system, the user registration program issues and stores a user ID, a password and an e-mail address for employing the e-mail service into a user information database. Then the user registration program starts the account generation program.
When the user views an information registration screen and directs to finish employing the e-mail system, the user registration program starts the account generation program, while deleting a user ID, a password and an e-mail address which has been used by the user from a user information database.
In addition, the user registration program resets an authentication ID timer each time the user controls the system.
The address book program 205c is a program to generate an address book screen for a user to edit or view an address book when the user accesses a URL for address book of the WWW server by controlling a WWW browser.
The address book program stores data on a specific person's name, a telephone number and an e-mail address designated by the user in association with each other into an address book database. The address book data is stored in association with each other for each user ID. The maximum number of address book data pieces allowed for each user to register can be set to a predetermined number.
In addition, the address book program resets an authentication ID timer each time the user controls the system.
The account generation program 205d is a program for causing a mail server to generate an e-mail account for a user when the user accesses a URL for user registration of a WWW server by controlling a WWW browser and directs to start employing the e-mail system. The account generation program is also used for deleting the user's e-mail account in the mail server when the user accesses a URL for user registration of a WWW server by controlling a WWW browser and directs to finish employing the e-mail system.
When generation of an e-mail account completes, the account generation program starts a charge program running on a charge server.
The mail server 206 is composed of an MTA program and a POP/IMAP program.
The MTA program 206a is a program for performing management of a mail account for a user who employs the e-mail system and for processing a piece of e-mail for a user who employs the e-mail system. The MTA program receives a piece of e-mail distributed over a communication network for a user who employs the e-mail system and stores the piece of e-mail into a data storage area on a mail server, which is referred to as “mail spool”. At this moment, the MTA program sorts and stores the received piece of e-mail for each user (for each e-mail address).
The maximum capacity for a mail storage area of a mail spool is set for each user. When an amount of storage for a user reaches its maximum capacity, the MTA program stops storing a piece of new e-mail for the user and returns the piece of e-mail to its source.
206b is a POP/IMAP program. When a user accesses the e-mail system through a protocol such as POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Message Accesses Protocol) by controlling the MUA program, a POP/IMAP program passes a piece of mail stored in a mail spool of a mail server to MUA.
When a user performs a sending process of a piece of e-mail by controlling an MUA program, the MUA program requests the MTA program to distribute the piece of e-mail. The MTA program which received the request distributes the piece of e-mail created by the user through SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol).
A database server 207 is composed of a user information database, an address book database and an authentication database.
The user information database 207a stores a user ID, a password, and an e-mail address of a user who employs the e-mail system.
The address book database 207b stores an address book for each user who employs the e-mail system. The address book stores data such as a specific person's name, a telephone number and an e-mail address, which are designated for registration.
The authentication database 207c stores an authentication ID generated by an authentication program.
The charge server 208 is composed of a charge program and a charge database.
When a user directs to start employing the e-mail system with a user registration program, the charge program 208a stores a set date and time as a date and time for service to start in a charge DB. The charge program 208a is also a program for storing a set date and time as a date and time for service to end in a charge database when a user directs to finish employing the e-mail system with a user registration program. With the charge program, the charge server calculates the number of days from the starting date and time to the ending date and time for each user who employs the e-mail system and calculates a charge of the e-mail system.
The charge database 208b stores the dates and times to start and end the service for a user who employs the e-mail system.